RED HOOK — Red Hook's only nightclub won official recommendation for its liquor license application Monday night, putting it on track to open early next year after promising not to turn it into a den of sin.

Dicks, 57, a computer systems manager for New York City Transit, labored to assure residents and committee members that Con Amore would operate on the level. He has worked 32 years in the entertainment industry, he said, most recently as the co-owner of Studio 243 in Downtown Brooklyn, which did not accrue any violations on its liquor license.

"I can assure you this is not going to be an adult establishment. There aren't going to be stripper poles or runways," Dicks said at an Oct. 22 permits committee meeting. "If I was doing that, I would say I was doing it, and I would be very good at it."

Instead of blasting loud dance music and serving $4 shots — which attract younger, rowdier crowds, Dicks said — Con Amore will cater to higher-income patrons in their late 20s and 30s with $6 or $7 beers, quieter music, watchful security and occasional live jazz, blues, R&B, salsa and stand-up comedy performances.

"We limit the noise by the type of music that we play and the volume of the music that we play," Dicks said. "I personally don't like loud music. So I'm not going to be in a place where the music is blowing my eardrums out."

A sound engineer has been hired to develop a sound-remediation plan for the club, he said, and both he and landlord Sal Reale expressed relief that they can now move forward with opening the club.

"This has been a pending thing now for a while. Everybody's anxious. So we just want to get going," Reale, 65, said.

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